ZAP // DmitryPoch, SergeyNivens / Depositphotos
A new commitment term for the adoption or purchase of dogs must be signed by the tutors in Scotland, according to a new law passed by the local parliament.
The Dog Welfare Bill aims to promote responsible guardianship, ensuring that people understand the required commitment before taking a pet.
Within 12 months, the government will need to elaborate the term, which is actually a List of Questions that owners should consider before being with a dog. Checklist items include questions about the time, space and money needed to raise the pet.
Once completed, the term will be transformed into a certificate to be signed by the new tutor and the person from whom he is acquiring the dog (the creator or adoption NGO, for example). The idea is that both sides are aware of the commitment involved.
The new rules will be implemented after Approval of the Bill Proposed by parliamentarian Christine Grahame of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which has been pressuring for changes for over seven years.
Grahame first presented a dog well-being bill in 2018, but saw him be left behind at the end of a parliamentary term reduced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The inspiration for the project came from Dogs and Cats of Edinburghwhere Grahame is a regular presence – it even has its eternal name on the wall.
Currently, the installation is full after a “worrying” increase in the number of dogs found on the street.
One of them is Susan, a mixture of Labrador and Staffordshire Bull Terrier races 4 years old. It is a friendly bitch who clearly received some training-can sit down and offer a paw in exchange for snacks-but who arrived at the shelter as a street dog in October, probably after being abandoned.
The executive director of the site, Lindsay Fyffe-Jardine, says that many of the dogs are eventually taken to the shelter after being left by owners who have seen their financial or housing circumstances change.
But it states that there is also a problem with adoptions or dog purchases made by impulse.
“In some places, it’s as easy to buy a dog as going to the supermarket buy bread,” he says. “But the reality is that not everyone stops and thinks I can buy this dog? Can I fit it into my life? ‘
“Why It’s a great commitment.”
This is where Christine Grahame’s bill comes in.
The new law requires the government to produce- within 12 months — a code of practice that establishes the measures that must be taken when buying, selling or donating a dog.
This document should include a list of questions that possible dog owners should do themselves and the person who are acquiring the animal.
Questions should fit on a page and include conditions such as:
- If the dog breed is suitable for the new owner;
- If they have a suitable environment to house it;
- If they have time to ensure that the dog exercises regularly;
- If they can pay the costs of having a pet on continuously;
- And if they can commit to taking care of the dog throughout your life.
The new owner would then have to sign a commitment term showing that he considered the questions established in the code, while the seller or donor must sign the document to certify that you are satisfied in delivering the dog.
This certificate is not a license or a legally binding document. The goal is to make people carefully think about what it means to have a dog before taking a new pet.
There is already a 28-page code of conduct for dog owners, which was introduced in 2010 in previous reforms for animal welfare.
More Grahame states that Few really read this codeand believes that filling a term at the time of purchase or adoption of a dog will make the new owners reflect at a critical moment.
Conservative parliamentarians came to pressed so that the new law simply found the new term of commitment to the code that already exists, but finally the project faced little dissent.
The bill originally also included proposals for Create a database throughout the Scotland to record all dogs created in unlicensed licenses.
However, this stretch was taken from the text after the government said that “it was not convinced that the development of a registration scheme would be an effective or proportional way” to resolve issues related to irresponsible reproduction.
The final debate on the bill also included a discussion on shock collarsafter Green Party deputy Ross Greer try to include an excerpt to prohibit them. But the proposal was rejected after the government is committed to returning to the issue as soon as more independent reports of the devices were completed later this year.
